By embracing bold choices, designer Leslie Schofield and her clients create a living gallery—a home where every surface and detail reflects the owners’ passion for art and collecting. Photos by Laura Bruschke. Styling by Noelle Wright.
Forget any notion of gallery-white walls and museum-like minimalism—this recently remodeled art-centric home in Salt Lake City’s charming Harvard/Yale neighborhood is anything but conventional. While the tree-lined exterior exudes a quiet, classic appeal, stepping inside the 1936 abode reveals a vibrant explosion of color, pattern and bold design choices, all curated around the homeowners’ cherished paintings and sculptures.
Leslie Schofield, principal of Leslie Schofield Studio, worked with lead designer Rory Shaughnessy and Living Home Construction to transform their clients’ home into an exuberant work of art.
The owners, a pair of professionals and passionate art collectors, were focused on overhauling specific spaces—namely their kitchen, sunroom and primary suite. They turned to the pros at Leslie Schofield Studio and Living Home Construction to help them. But as happens with many remodels, the work crept into other areas of the house. “We also worked on the stairway, lower level stairwell, roof and outdoor paint color,” explains designer and principal Leslie Schofield.
The kitchen kicked off the renovation. “The owners love to entertain and value beautiful function over frills,” explains Schofield who teamed with lead designer Rory Shaughnessy on the project. With that in mind, the team stripped the galley-style space to its core and reimagined it as a dynamic, highly functional area that reflects the homeowners’ modern aesthetic. “Every detail was selected not only for practicality, but also for visual impact, turning the kitchen into a gallery of its own,” Schofield explains. Sahara Noir polished marble and Taj Mahal quartzite top sleek cabinetry grounded by new terrazzo floors. State-of-the art appliances are integrated into floor-to-ceiling walnut cabinets, as is an end-of-room bar framed with quartzite and backed with strikingly patterned tile. Enveloping the space is a custom-colored ‘Assemblage’ Holly Hunt wallpaper featuring, appropriately enough, a painterly pattern. “It was a bold yet very intentional choice,” she adds.
The owners’ art collection starts outside of the house, where numerous pieces are displayed in the gardens of the 1936 home located in Salt Lake City’s Harvard/Yale neighborhood.
The design features sleek cabinets topped with Sahara Noir polished marble and Taj Mahal quartzite, perfectly complemented by new terrazzo floors. State-of-the-art appliances are seamlessly integrated into floor-to-ceiling walnut cabinets, which also house an end-of-room coffee bar framed in quartzite and highlighted by boldly patterned tile.
The copper-and-bone-hued wallpaper flows into the adjoining living room and stairway. Rather than allowing the stairwell to be merely transitional, the designer turned it into a dramatic focal point. The dazzling wallpaper’s oversized calligraphic strokes create movement, pulling the eye around the room and up the staircase. Thoughtfully-placed artwork punctuates the ascent, making each step an experience. And while some might consider the wallcovering a distraction from the art, the designer believes otherwise. “There is so much motion in the wallpaper, so the art is where your eye rests,” she explains. Sleek chrome railings and seamless wood steps and treads deliver contemporary elegance and edge, ensuring the stairwell is more than just a passage—it’s a visual journey.
In the reimagined primary bedroom, Tiburon wallpaper by David Bonk provides a bold backdrop for the owner’s collected art.
Upstairs, the primary suite’s dark, saturated tones set the stage for relaxation while maintaining an element of the unexpected. Dark wallpaper wraps the room in a dramatically patterned, textured backdrop that enhances—rather than competes with—the curated artwork. “The dark tones make the room feel like a cocoon,” says Schofield, who switched to a lighter, more serene ambiance for the adjoining bathroom. “Everything is simple and quiet, yet still breathtaking,” she says. Terrazzo flooring, sleek Italian vanities, a white-tiled shower and light-toned, geometric wallpaper team to create the sleek, tranquil decor.
Schofield pattern-drenched the mudroom in a dotted wallpaper that complements the steps’ black-and-white tile. Black automotive-paint-finished lockers provide ample storage. Chalet wallpaper is by Kelly Wearstler for Lee Jofa.
A darker terrazzo floor grounds the reimagined sunroom that doubles as a mudroom—a space often overlooked in home renovations. A square-dotted grid wallpaper wraps the walls and ceiling with a playful yet sophisticated pattern chosen to complement black-and-white tile that edges the room’s steps as well as those in the revamped basement stairwell. “Fully wrapping the room in wallpaper made the room feel expansive, even with its low ceiling and step down,” says Schofield, who included large lockers finished with black automotive paint as thoughtfully designed storage solutions that ensure this space is both functional and artistic.
This renovation challenges the notion that artwork must always stand alone, that interiors should fade into the background. Instead, Schofield’s fearless approach proves that art and design can coexist dynamically, enhancing each other in unexpected ways. The result is a home that feels curated but never stiff, expressive but never chaotic. Working with their talented team, the owners have done more than update this structure—they’ve transformed it into an extension of their collection, a place where their love for art and design finds its fullest expression. Bold, textured and unapologetically vibrant, this home is not just a place to display art—it is art itself.
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